


The Zeroth Ring

by Nibelung



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Aule & Yavanna are basically Hephaestus & Aphrodite, Aule is a dick, Eye Gouging, Eye Trauma, F/M, Female Sauron, Gang Rape, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Morgoth totally knows what's going to happen, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Poor Sauron, Sauron is a Maia of Aule, and isn't very happy about it, seriously he's a huge misogynist asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 06:46:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19436092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nibelung/pseuds/Nibelung
Summary: Mairon, Maia of Aulë, seeks to learn the craft of smithing as the male apprentices do. But when Aulë finally teaches her something, it isn't the lesson she wanted.





	The Zeroth Ring

_And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:_

_For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil._

\-- Genesis 3:4-5

ONCE, long ago in the land of Valinor, before the theft of the Silmarils or the raising of the Sun and Moon, there was a Maia of Aulë who was discontent.

Her name was Mairon. And she was discontent because Aulë the Vala, who hated women, would not suffer the female Maiar ordained to serve him to work alongside him in his forge, or to help him in his labours, as the male Maiar did; only to prepare food and drink, and to keep neat the chambers to which the smiths repaired after their work was done.

Yet Aulë was wedded to Yavanna; and this arose because Yavanna was most beautiful of all the Valar save Elbereth. And so that none of the Powers might have a preferential claim to her beauty, she was wedded to the one most indifferent to the charms of both nature and the feminine.

Many times did Mairon beg Aulë to take her as one of his apprentices, as he did with the male Maiar and even some of the Eldar; and each time he refused. But in secret she watched the Vala working at his forge; and unobserved she learned many things about the craft of smithwork.

And Mairon complained bitterly of her neglect to Melkor, who dwelt then in Valinor claiming to be redeemed of his past wrongs. For none of the Powers besides him would hearken to words spoken against one of their number, or interfere in the realm of another; and alone of the Valar did he turn to her a sympathetic ear.

Thus to Melkor did Mairon go for counsel, knowing he would not turn her away, when at last she could no longer bear her master’s cold-heartedness, and sought to learn how matters might be turned in her favour.

“It is not just,” she said, “that I should be denied this privilege which my lord extends freely to others, solely because I am a woman. Yet he is my lord, and his will is right; how therefore can I disobey him?”

“Aulë is a fool,” said Melkor, with a casual insolence that shocked Mairon. “He would never give you the privilege you seek of his own will, for his prejudice is stronger than his reason. But why do you not run away as did your sister?”

For both fiery-headed Mairon and her sister, dark-haired Melian, were renowned as beautiful even by the Valar. But in the years when the dwellers of Valinor had awaited the coming of the Eldar, after the three Fathers of the Elves returned to Middle-earth to summon their kindred from the shores of Koivienen, Mairon’s sister Melian had gone forth from Valinor, and never returned.

Like Mairon she was a Maia in Aulë’s service, and like Mairon she chafed at the restrictions put on her by her master. Melian had been full of desire to see the Elves, then unknown in the Blessed Realm save through their three emissaries, and she claimed she would return once her curiosity was sated. But she came not back; and Mairon deemed that Melian’s departure had been driven in great measure by her yearning to escape her servitude.

“The Powers have ordained my service to Aulë,” said Mairon, “and it would be wrong to forsake it. I will not abandon him as did my sister. But my heart yearns for the forge and the bellows, and I desire above all that my master recognize me as a worthy pupil.” And the fox ears which she was wont to wear as part of her bodily raiment quivered with suppressed anger.

Then Melkor tugged in thought at the long oiled ringlets of the beard he wore, and was silent for a time; but at last he spoke, and said, “If you cannot get permission for what you desire to have, then it would be best simply to take it, and ask forgiveness afterward.

“Go to the forge of Aulë when he is absent,” said Melkor, “and make there what your heart desires to make, and put in it all that you know of skill and craft. And afterward go to Aulë, to show him what you have wrought, and ask him if it is not worth having a woman work the forges, if she create works of such beauty and craftsmanship as you have in your heart.”

“Your counsel is good, Lord Melkor,” said Mairon. “I shall follow it.”

And Mairon took her leave; but inwardly Melkor laughed with bitterness, for he knew that even the Gods were fallible, and Aulë’s wrath when kindled was hot as the coals of his forge.

In this he was not disappointed.

Thus, when the hour of rest had come and the radiance of the Two Trees was dimmed for a while, Mairon stole into the empty smithy of Aulë the Vala, and fired the forges and set to work; and there she wrought a ring, whose beauty and skill of craft were so radiant that she hoped it would win her the honour and freedom she coveted.

The ring was made of fine gold, fashioned like a serpent devouring its own tail; and it had for its eyes gems that glittered like fire.

But Aulë heard the roar of the bellows and the ringing of hammers, and roused himself, and came in haste to his smithy just as Mairon was finishing her work; and with him came a handful of his most trusted apprentices, ready to defend their master’s halls against whoever might defile them.

And Mairon lifted up the ring newly-made, and handed it to Aulë, and said, “My Lord, I give you this gift which I have wrought in praise of your skill and glory, and hope it finds favour in your eyes. If it is pleasing to you, I beg to be allowed to train as one of your apprentices, to learn at your side as the men of the Maiar are honoured to do.” And her fox ears perked with anticipation.

But Aulë was wroth, and the artistry of the ring moved him not. And he said, “How is this trifle a praise of my skill and glory, since I have neither instructed thee nor suffered thee to share in my labours? Thou hast espied me at whiles to learn my secrets, and hast stolen my tools, and with them wrought a monument to thine own pride, which is unseemly in a woman such as thou art.” And he cast the ring from him angrily, back into the fire whence it came.

“Nay, thou must be reminded of thy place, Mairon,” said Aulë, “and learn to live humbly in thy allotted portion, amidst scullions and chambermaids. For frail as thou art in body and spirit, thou couldst not withstand the full heat of my forges. And that thou take care to remember this, I shall inscribe the lesson on thy body.”

As he spoke his picked apprentices surrounded her, and bore her to the ground; and fight as she would, Mairon could not master them without forsaking entirely her physical flesh.

Soon she was naked before them. And Aulë and his servants lay with her by force, and her cries of pain and shame were lost amid the crackle of the forge’s coals, and the hissing of her ring as it melted to ash.

And at last they were spent, leaving her to lie, naked and sobbing, on the filthy, ash-strewn floor of the smithy; and Mairon thought her punishment was over. But she was wrong. For the apprentices retreated, but Aulë again approached her; he crouched by her side and said:

“Thy ring was but a foolish bauble to delight the vain eye of woman; better wouldst thou serve me wert thou not blinded by such trifles.”

And Aulë’s hand shot forth like lightning, and tore Mairon’s left eye from its socket.

“Now, Mairon, I deem thou shalt know thy place in future.”

So he left her then, bleeding and crying, maimed and defiled, a mass of flesh quivering in agony, alone in the most hallowed place in his halls.

Now the heart of Mairon burned with pain and humiliation: but most of all, her soul was on fire with rage. Never again, she vowed, would she let herself undergo such a violation. And for what she had suffered, Aulë would pay, and with him all the inhabitants of Valinor.

After that day Mairon the servant of Aulë was never more seen in that Vala’s halls; but Melkor was accompanied by a new familiar, a Maia said to be newly entered into Arda, which was a strange thing in itself.

This newcomer among the Maiar distinguished himself not with fox’s ears or curling ringlets; but he wore the slitted eyes of a cat.

And he called himself “the Excellent One”; but in after days in Middle-earth he was known as Sauron, and the Necromancer, and Gorthaur the Cruel.

But few among the Wise knew that Sauron’s name had once been Mairon; and fewer still knew her true history, because the Valar forbade it to be written or spoken.

Yet it is said in whispers that among those who learned or guessed Sauron’s true nature was Lúthien Tinúviel; and that in the combat with Sauron at Taur-na-Fuin, she cut Sauron’s member from his body, knowing that this dark wizard’s shape contained the soul of a woman.

But Lúthien and Beren long ago passed into the realm of legend; and whoever now in Middle-earth that knows the truth of the matter will not speak of it.

**Transcriber’s note:** a variant manuscript exists, which refers to “golden-haired Melian” rather than “dark-haired Melian”. This manuscript also describes Mairon as wearing “golden stag’s antlers” rather than “fox ears”, and lacks the mention of them during the episode in Aulë’s forge.


End file.
